Google Photos Adds Video Playback Controls

Google Photos saw a small but important update yesterday that gives you more control over your videos you have stored in the app and online. The updated version is build 1.6 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out to the Google Play Store now. If you have the app, you should see the OTA for it in the next few days. The big change is that you now have the ability to fast forward and rewind videos that you have stored as you watch them. Previously you could only pause videos but if you wanted to go back in the video, you had to tap the play bar to go back or start over.

In the update, when you tap the video, you will see fast forward and rewind controls overlay on the video. Again, it is a small thing but it is a pretty important feature for those who have uploaded a lot of your videos to the service.

Google Photos for Android

There are a few other minor UI tweaks in this update as well, mostly around menu controls.

If you haven’t tried Photos out, it is a great service and a great app that is available for both Android and iOS. The app stores photos from your phone to the cloud so you can access them from any device at any time. If you store the photos online in High Quality (great for photos under 16MP), then the storage does not count against your Google Drive storage quota either, another nice benefit. Google recently announced that Photos will be their photo app and service going forward with Picasa being retired.